Adia Victoria: Tiny Desk Concert

At first, I was drawn in by Adia Victoria's languid guitar sound: In her hands, it practically has a drawl of its own. Then I heard her stories — never trite, often personal, always potent — which you can hear in the words that open her Tiny Desk concert. "I don't know nothing 'bout Southern belles," she sings in "Stuck In The South," adding, "but I can tell you something 'bout Southern hell."

Adia Victoria's voice is powerful and direct, with no artifice; it carries the singular perspective of a Southern black woman with a Seventh Day Adventist upbringing, who never felt like she'd fit in. She recently put out her first album, Beyond The Bloodhounds, and two of the songs here ("Stuck In The South" and "And Then You Die") are from that record. It's a brilliant debut, though I highly recommend seeing her perform live for the full experience.